Dr. Ato Forson
Our lead story yesterday was headlined “Ato Forson Hails GoldBod For Cedi Stabilisation”.
The story captured the sentiment of the Finance Minister Dr. Ato Forson while inaugurating the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).
The Finance Minister attributed the current somewhat stability of the Cedi to the establishment of the GoldBod.
Many questioned how within a few months of the creation of a GoldBod and much later, a board could impact on the strength of the Cedi.
Economic policies take time to fruit. For a new government which is yet to find its feet at the throttles, no new policy could have yielded fruits so soon. Such ‘Alice in Wonderland’ stories should not feature in our public discourse because they have the tendency to insult the intelligence of right-thinking citizens of this country, and in fact foreigners who observe the developments in the country. After all, we belong to a global village whose international financial institutions we turn to when we are distressed, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank representatives here in Ghana monitoring every economic policy move that we take.
One of the innovations of the previous regime was the use of the country’s gold reserve in the vault of the apex bank to shore the Cedi and to protect it from the vagaries of the international currency market.
The Governor of the apex bank was right when he attributed the positive outcome to the hard work of former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Governance being a continuum, we must as a people, both the government and the governed, give credit where this is due.
Such credits encourage our compatriots when they take their turn to serve in government to do even more.
No government can complete the task of development. We undertake our part and let others continue.
There is no doubt that the impact of whatever policy interventions the current government is undertaking will not bear fruits immediately. This presupposes that the fruits being observed now are the results of work undertaken by the previous government, and this must be acknowledged.
Some appointees of the current government must be congratulated for recognising the work done by their predecessors.
The obnoxious practice of running down our predecessors and creating the impression that they did nothing to advance the cause of the nation is wrong and unethical.
The positive impact of the Gold-For-Oil policy, which the former Vice President originated, is what has accounted for some of the economic dividends being felt in the country today. This has expectedly attracted the attention of countries like Namibia, which seeks to replicate it.
We recall the recent visit to the medical drone system by some government appointees. It was such a refreshing spectacle to behold when persons who previously derided the project, one of them even claiming it was going to be used to watch naked women in bathrooms, marveled at the innovation. Although this was balderdash and simply ignored by responsible Ghanaians, it testified to how lowly some Ghanaians in the name of partisan politics can think.
It is time to grow and to consider our country first in all that we do, and to remember that one government cannot do everything within the four-year mandate given by the people, the rest waiting to be continued by others.